Well, Hassie and I trekked
from Advance Base camp to base camp yesterday for thankfully our last time,
this trek has got no easier as time has gone by, this trek has probably become
the most hated part of our adventure, so we were very glad to see the red
tents of our base camp.

Anyway, we left base camp
over a week ago and our ambition was to make a summit attempt, little did we
know how successful we would be and still we cannot believe that we made it.
Every time anyone mentions Everest a massive comes across our faces and fact
someone suggested yesterday that if I grinned any more the top of my head
would fall off!

So last week before we left
BC we got a long range forecast and the predications were that the 17th May
2006 would be a prefect summit day with low winds at the summit of Everest. So
we did our calculations and left BC on the 10th May giving us, a rest day a
ABC and enough days to be a position to attempt to reach the summit on the
17th May. So we set off for ABC, after arriving we meet up with our climbing
Sherpa team and we discussed our summit plan. Thankfully they all agreed we
our plan and all necessary arrangements where already in place for our summit
attempt.

D-day minus 4- we left ABC
and climbed back up to the North Col again, this was uneventful but we were
much faster than previous attempts so we hoped that this was good omen. After
a night there with not much sleep, although mind you some got a lot more than
others. Geoffrey’s cough had only got worse and he took the wise and difficult
decision not to continue on, while we set off up to camp 2 at 7700m high on
Everest’s North Ridge. (Unfortunately the radio system was still not working
properly, and by this stage of the guy’s trip I had not had communications
with them for over 4 days. This was extremely frustrating, as not only did I
want to speak to Raymond and find out how he felt, but I needed to pass on the
all important weather forecast-K) We passed through the North Col camp we met
up with another Expedition leader who was using the same weather forecast
source as us and he suggested that the predications had changed to the 18th
and not the 17th , so this was not great news for us, however we were on our
way and that was it, there was no turning back at this stage.

Now the climb to 7700m was
probably one of the toughest days I have ever spent in the mountains, the
climb consists of a steep snow ramp that gains 700m in height and can only be
described as torture. Women always complain that childbirth is painful and
that men have no idea of what pain is, well try high altitude mountaineering
some time you may find it comparable? (Not that I am in a position to argue
this one, but…surely most child labour needs pain reducing drugs and lasts for
more than 5 hours?-K) So after 5 hours + we arrived at our camp exhausted and
sore, however that’s not the work over for the day, then you must start
melting snow for water and this process goes on for 3-4 hours! Everyone then
went on to Oxygen for the first time that night and this was a bizarre
experience for the first time. Most of us did not really get much sleep that
night.

Next day we set off using our
Oxygen masks for the climb up to our 8300m camp, our last and highest camp on
the mountain. This we had been told was not a hard day and would take around
four hours to complete, this we found hard to believe, however this was true
and was much easier than the day before. We arrived into the camp around three
in the afternoon and we then set about melting snow again for drinking, this
process again went on for hours.

The camp at 8300 m is strange
and an uncomfortable place, every task you try and complete is very difficult
and takes a very long time to complete. We set our departure time for summit
that night to be 22.00 and everyone was to ready to go at 21:30 to allow some
tolerance.

At 20:30 we got on the radio
to the other tents and told everyone to get ready to go, well as expected this
got a quick and positive response- not. So after numerous calls we finally got
a reply and everyone started to get ready. Then at 22:00 we got out of our
tent into the freezing cold (at least -20oC) and of course there was no one
ready, so eventually at 22:30 everyone was prepared, and at 22:40 we finally
got going.

This was a great feeling and
hard to believe that what we had been planning for years was about to come to
a conclusion, and that eventually we were going to have a summit attempt. So
after 2 hours we climbed up onto the North East ridge of Everest, there was no
wind although it was very cold, but we were comfortable in our down suits.
After a few minutes on the ridge we came across the first dead body, this was
quite unnerving and we passed by as quickly as possible. The ridge was a lot
more exposed than we had expected, so after another hour of so we came to the
first step, a notorious rock step on the ridge. This was a lot harder to climb
than we imagined and after gaining the top of it, Steve turned to Hassie and
asked “is there anything harder than this?” and lying of course Hassie
answered, “No I think that’s it!” Needless to say the there was worse to come!
So we continued to traverse along the ridge on to the second and most famous
feature named “the second step” this we climbed with a little difficulty, but
we knew that this was the major difficulties over and the rest of route to the
summit was easier that what we had already done. We then continued along to a
feature called the Mushroom rock and here we changed Oxygen bottles to a new
bottle. The route from here leads up a snow field and then traverses along to
the summit ridge, the sun was starting to rise at this time and the view over
the other mountains was truly spectacular with everything below our feet at
this stage. We finally we gained the summit ridge and could see the prayer
flags on the summit, this was a unbelievable moment for me and one I will
always remember, after another 20 minutes, Hassie, Steve, Dawa Sherpa and I
stood on the top of Mount Everest, we hugged, we shook hands, we cheered, a
dream come true.

Hassie got on the radio to Kate at Base Camp and he cheered for minutes before
even saying anything! After a few minutes later, Jonathan, Fergal, Jangbu
Sherpa, Lil Tamang arrived, they had, had a small problem with an iced up
oxygen mask that had delayed them, we all rejoiced, shouted and basically went
slightly mad, at this point in time.

After 30 minutes of trying to
take photos without success because unfortunately everyone’s camera was frozen
we gave up. We had carried the Duke of Edinburgh Award flag to the summit to
celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the scheme. We took some time to try and
take pictures of the flag on the summit. In the ethos of the scheme decided
that we would not leave the flag on the summit, but bring it back down to
present at a later date to the Award staff. We departed the summit and the
descent was along the same route as our ascent, the only difference being that
this was bright daylight and not only illuminated only by a head torch. I
think if we had seen what we had to ascend in these day light conditions we
may have not reached the summit? The ridge was far more difficult than we
expected.

We descended with just a few scares along the way and safely returned to our
8300m camp at around 11:30 still not believing what we had achieved.

Camp was then packed up and
we all returned to our 7700m camp, Hassie, Jonathan, Steve, Dawa Sherpa and
Lakpa Sherpa stayed here for the night. Fergal, descended to the North Col,
Jangbu Sherpa, LIl Tamang, and I descended on to Advance base and arrived in
at 18:30 that evening totally exhausted.

The sat phone never stopped
ringing all evening and I eventually switched it off at 12:30 to try and get
to sleep! Although worn out I still could not sleep with the excitement of
what we had just achieved.

The next day everyone
returned to Advance base camp around lunch time, still smiling all the time,
we had just got five people on top of the world, with no injuries, just
unbelievable!

That afternoon unfortunately
reality hit us when we heard the awful news of the death of Jacque, a French
climber who had travelled from Kathmandu to Everest with us. He was attempting
Everest with his wife Caroline and friend Roland. Jacque got into trouble at
the summit, Roland and his Sherpa spent 6 hours trying to get him down but
unfortunately had to leave Jacque to save their own lives. Caroline was at
Advance Base camp when she received the terrible news and our hearts go out to
her at this time, Jacque was a really nice guy and we are all sadden by this
tragedy. Other sad news was that one of Skiers who were attempting to ski off
Everest, had also died, we had met them many times and again this news was
very hard to take and our thoughts go out to his family.

Everest is a dangerous place,
we knew that before coming here but the last few days have really hit home to
us, we have had great success and luck, and others have not.

People have asked would you
go back and attempt it again? No is the answer.

Hassie, Kate and I are in BC
now enjoying the Oxygen rich environment, hopefully the rest of the team will
return to Base Camp later today and I will report some more very soon, in the
mean while thanks to everyone who supported us, helped us and has followed our
expedition, and sorry to finish this update on such a sad note.